Watered down: Keene sloshes to key D-II victory

ROCHESTER — If the Spaulding High School football team was hoping the rain and slop would slow down Keene's prolific offense, they were right. The Red Raiders held the Blackbirds to six points.

Unfortunately for Spaulding, it struggled mightily to move the ball itself and failed to score at all. Keene quarterback Lucas Luopa threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Matthew Delvecchio as time expired in the first half and the Blackbirds made the result stand.

With games postponed all over the state because of the weather, Friday night's game at Spaulding went on as scheduled despite a torrential downpour throughout the contest that turned Hugo Bolin Field into a swamp. The decision to play left Keene coach John Luopa convinced Spaulding was hoping to use the adverse conditions to its advantage.

"That was their chance of winning the football game," Luopa said. "With their offense and what they want to do, why wouldn't they want us to come over and play in standing water? That's what we're playing in. If you walked to midfield, it's standing water. (We) were prepared for it and our defense played awesome for us."

While the horrible conditions might have dampened Keene's running game, it didn't do the Red Raiders any favors either.

"It might have hurt us tonight," Spaulding coach Claude Gagnon said. "Our spread offense, we've been working on that and I thought it was getting real good, but we couldn't spread them out either. They were a little better off the edges tonight."

Spaulding fell to 1-4 overall and 1-3 in Division II. Although the Red Raiders were 1-4 at the same point last season and went to the playoffs, the schedule is much harder this time around with games against formidable Winnacunnet (undefeated going into today's game at Dover) and four-time division champion Bishop Guertin over the next three weeks

"It's one of those games," Gagnon said. "You get to these conditions, it's a mudder's game. We moved the ball at times but always had that one mistake in a drive that kept taking us out."

It was also the second straight home game in which Spaulding surrendered the game-winning touchdown at an inopportune time. Three weeks ago against Timberlane, the Red Raiders were burned by an Owl touchdown with 45 seconds left to play and lost by one point.

"I feel like we've gotten better, but tonight we just didn't have luck on our side," Spaulding lineman and captain Tanner Daniels said about Friday's game. "They were a great team. It was disappointing, but we kept our heads up. We held them to six."

Indeed, Spaulding's best chances to score came on its first three possessions. After the Red Raiders recovered a Keene fumble on the opening kickoff (one of four turnovers for the Blackbirds, all fumbles) at the 28-yard line, Spaulding's drive ended when Kevin Medara was stopped on 4th-and-2 from the Keene 6.

On its second drive, Spaulding took the ball all the way down to the Keene 13-yard line, but had to settle for a 35-yard field goal attempt by Brian Chick, which was blocked.

Medara recovered a Keene fumble on the Blackbirds' next series, giving the Red Raiders the ball at the Keene 20. Three handoffs to Trey Scott (61 yards rushing) got the ball down to the 13, but quarterback Sam Ouellette was stuffed for no gain on fourth down.

"We didn't capitalize on their mistakes, and that's what it came down to," Gagnon said. "We had the ball deep in their end in the first half and we made some mental mistakes."

The Blackbirds' game-winning drive started at Spaulding's 43-yard line and took four plays to score. On 3rd-and-12 from the 22, Lucas Luopa got loose in the pocket and hit Delvecchio, who broke coverage and was wide open in the end zone with no time remaining. The extra-point attempt was wide right, and Keene took a 6-0 lead into the locker room.

The first five drives of the second half ended in punts, then Spaulding recovered a fumble at midfield early in the fourth quarter. Spaulding went a quick three-and-out and never got past their own 30 for the remainder of the contest. Spaulding lost despite losing the turnover battle, coughing the ball over twice.

Lucas Luopa did not play in the second half and John Luopa declined comment when asked why. The coach also declined to say if the quarterback was injured.

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